Big Red sack machine: Bryant busting out in new role

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All during training camp, Red Bryant kept talking about being a run-stuffing defensive end. He’s the guy at the point of attack, taking on blockers and freeing up other guys to make the plays.

At 6-foot-4, 333 pounds, it’s impossible to see the big man any other way. He’s never going to be the speed rusher off the edge like his father-in-law, Jacob Green, even if he does wear the same No. 79 and is now lining up at the same left defensive end position for the Seahawks.

Red Bryant

But a funny thing happened last Sunday while Big Red was gumming up the San Francisco 49ers’ run game.

A couple minutes into the second quarter of the Seahawks’ opener, there was Bryant busting into the Niners’ backfield and dropping quarterback Alex Smith for a sack and forcing a fumble.

It was the first sack of Bryant’s three-year pro career and the first of the season for any Seahawks’ defender, a play that brought much joy to one man in particular in the Qwest Field stands.

“He was actually at the game,” Bryant said of his father-in-law, whose name is in the Seahawks Ring of Honor circling the stadium. “He was extremely happy for me.”

Jacob Green, of course, was a far different defensive end from young Red. At 6-3, 252 pounds, he was a speed rusher who racked up a franchise-record 116 sacks from 1980-91, the third-most in the NFL in that span behind only Lawrence Taylor and Reggie White.

Bryant met Janelle Green when the two were at Texas A&M. She was a standout soccer player, he a big-time football player. They married in February of 2009.

Bryant wore No. 85 at A&M, but switched to 79 with the Seahawks in honor of his father-in-law. At the time, he never expected to be switched himself to the same defensive end position. But Pete Carroll and his staff saw something nobody else had dreamed up before, moving the big, athletic youngster outside.

Now one game into that grand experiment, Bryant has one sack. He needs only 115 more to catch his father-in-law, a thought that unleashed a big chuckle from the massive 26-year-old.

He’s the one, in fact, who knew exactly how many sacks Green had off the top of his head.

“You know, we watch his highlight tape all the time,” Bryant said. “I couldn’t ask for a better father-in-law. He’s a great man, a great player. I talk to him every day. If I call him right now, he’ll be there for me, no matter what.”

Bryant is already turning into one of this season’s best stories for the Seahawks, the likable big man who has finally found his game at the NFL level.

“You kind of get tired of sitting around watching everybody else,” said Bryant, who got into just 10 games for limited duty his first two years. “You want to get out there and help. I just feel I’m more mature in Year 3. The NFL is kind of tough and when you’re losing, everybody points the fingers and tries to figure out why and you kind of get lost in the shuffle.

“But we’ve got a new coach, new energy and new scheme and I’m just excited I’m a part of it.”

Bryant acknowledges he wasn’t as mentally tough as he needed to be his first two seasons in the league. But his confidence has grown day-by-day, since first flashing his potential at end in the offseason minicamps, backing that up in preseason games and then stepping up big in the opener with three tackles, the sack and forced fumble while helping hold Frank Gore to 38 yards rushing.

He knows he looked a little like a fish out of water at defensive end against Green Bay in the preseason when he had Aaron Rodgers in the backfield, only to be caught flat-footed when the quarterback eluded him and jetted around the corner.

But he knew then that sacks could come his way, something that rarely happened at defensive tackle in college. His last sack came in 2007, the one time he pulled down a quarterback his senior season.

Even then he was the run stuffer inside. But, hey, now he’s playing defensive end, wearing Jacob Green’s old number and, well …

“I felt like I could have got one against Tennessee and Minnesota (in the preseason),” he said. “And Aaron Rodgers made me look kind of clumsy a couple of times, but it’s something I’ve been working on. I feel like I might be able to creep up on people because they’re just assuming I’m going to be on the line of scrimmage and every now and then they might let their guard down and I can go around ‘em.”

Make no mistake, though. He knows his role as the “five-technique end” in Seattle’s scheme revolves primarily around stunting the run game and occupying blockers to open up other people’s paths to the quarterback.

“They’re not asking me to go out there and be like Chris Clemons,” Bryant said. “What they’re asking for me is to be hard to move, take on doubles and free up guys. And that’s something I’m equipped for, given my size. They’re not asking me to do anything outside of my ability.

“I’m just glad from OTAs to training camp to preseason and to the first game, every step of the way I’m getting better and better. That’s my goal, to keep building bricks, keep building bricks. Who knows where it’s going to take me, but hopefully it’s going to be pretty good.”